1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to non-commercial production of cigarettes not intended for resale on the commercial market. The invention relates to small, portable cigarette making machines intended for domestic use by individual owners.
2. Prior Art
The closest prior patent art known to applicant consists of the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
______________________________________ 1,892,143 Gordon December 27, 1932 1,949,654 Norris March 6, 1934 3,084,697 Eissmann April 3, 1963 3,128,773 Patterson April 14, 1964 3,237,628 Riegger March 1, 1966 3,244,182 Eissmann April 5, 1966 3,261,364 Korber July 19, 1966 3,477,442 Hooper November 11, 1969 3,921,644 Lohe November 25, 1975 ______________________________________
These prior art patents relate mainly to large commercial cigarette making machines which are not feasible for domestic use in small quantity production. They are concerned with mass production runs requiring huge supplies of tobacco and special handling and processing methods. For example, Eissmann U.S. Pat. No. 3,244,182 compresses the tobacco in advance of feeding it to the cigarette paper and deposits it on the paper in the form of thin, compressed, overlapping layers. Eissmann U.S. Pat. No. 3,084,697 deposits compressed tobacco wafers on a conveyor belt, then shreds the wafers, and deposits the shredded tobacco on the cigarette paper. Patterson U.S. Pat. No. 3,128,773 forms a tobacco slurry and then uses electrostatic means to funnel the slurry to a conveyor belt. Lohe U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,644 and Korber U.S. Pat. No. 3,261,364 show very complicated machines and control mechanisms. Gordon U.S. Pat. No. 1,892,143 shows a cigarette making machine which could be used non-commercially, but it operates on a screw-principle, which feeds into a preformed paper tube. Gordon's patent does not teach the making of the paper tube.
Norris U.S. Pat. No. 1,949,654 shows a strip of cigarette paper riding on an endless conveyor belt and means for forming the cigarette paper, operating through the conveyor belt, into a trough-shaped receptacle for receiving tobacco. But it does not show a positive-feed device in the form of a cleated conveyor belt, synchronized with the movement of the cigarette paper, for metering the flow of tobacco into the cigarette paper. Nor does Norris show a tobacco compacting means which is synchronized with both the tobacco feed and the paper travel for compacting the tobacco into a tobacco rod.